Defeating Cancer Together

Joe Tirabassi, IBM w3 Communications Summer Intern

IBM is contributing to the fight to cure cancer, and you (and your computer) can help. The "Help Defeat Cancer" project will use the computational power of IBM's World Community Grid to provide the power to analyze a large number of cancer tissue microarrays (TMA) that will help doctors improve treatment and therapy planning for cancer patients.

Researchers from The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University and the University of Pennsylvania have created a web-based, robotic prototype that automatically analyzes, archives, shares, and creates images of digitized tissue microarrays. These microarrays allow scientists to better study cancer and its effects. World Community Grid will supply substantial supercomputer power to enable more complex comparisons to run much more efficiently.

“What this means is that the power of grid technology enables us to analyze hundreds of arrays simultaneously, allowing multiple experiments to be conducted within a shorter period of time,” said Dr. David J. Foran, professor and lead researcher at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. "World Community Grid makes it possible to analyze in one day the humber of specimens that would take approximately 130 years to complete using a traditional computer."

The researchers have received funding from the National Institutes of Health and The Cancer Institute of New Jersey. They will start by analyzing breast cancer, with head and neck cancers just around the corner.

The results will also give researchers better insight into which patient groups will most likely respond to certain treatments, as well as providing information for drug design in the future.

“Although tissue microarrays are not currently being used by physicians to render primary diagnoses, it does make it possible for researchers to determine the specific type and stage of cancer present and systematically investigate which therapies or combinations of treatments are most likely to be effective,” said Dr. Foran.

A long-term goal for the cancer research community is to create a library of antigens and their role in disease progression so that future physicians can consult that resource to help them diagnose and provide the most effective treatment for patients with cancer. “In the future, one can imagine that specific courses of treatment will be prescribed for cancer patients based on whether a specific antigen is present or not,” said Dr. Foran.

You can assist the “Help Defeat Cancer” initiative by downloading World Community Grid’s free software onto your computer and registering at its website. IBM funds World Community Grid, which brings together the collective power of millions of idle computers around the world. This grid technology provides processing power for researchers that is much greater than the world’s largest supercomputers. The program applies unused processing power to cancer research — and when you're away it displays a pretty neat screensaver.

Human Proteome Folding Project first used World Community Grid to produce a database of the descriptions for approximately 150,000 protein domains that could not be described using traditional techniques.

More recently, the FightAIDS@Home project employed World Community Grid to develop better therapies to prevent the onset of AIDS in individuals infected with HIV.

IBM HealthNex World Community Grid defeating cancer

Comments

[ew]

poor lost liberals

vitamins

patio furniture

cosmetic surgery

lasik texas

outdoor grill

[health]

you website is very nice!

May add a link to me?

My website is Health

[Dr Jeff Aitkin]

A very close mate of mine died recently of prostate cancer, he was 44. Through a course of MC-S we were able to raise the activity of his immune system enough to give him what other doctors said would not be possible, an extra 5 years. I attribute this extension of his life mainly to three things, lots of exercise, as much fresh fruit and vege as he could eat and juice every day, and a daily routine of 2 MC-S tablets three times a day. If you know someone who is affected by prostate cancer or you have concerns, please see your doctor and you might like to read some of the details on www.mc-s.com.au